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Showing posts with label U.S. Pakistan relations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label U.S. Pakistan relations. Show all posts
While USA was pouring at least $1.5 Trillion into futile Afghanistan war, China was developing 1st world infrastructure and today New York has bumpy roads - PM Pakistan Imran Khan | Morning Joe | @MSNBC#UNGApic.twitter.com/N612faz7sI
Pakistan’s prime minister served up some bitter truths during an interview with MSNBC, noting that US taxpayer dollars would have been better spent on fixing America’s infrastructure, as opposed to squandering them in Afghanistan.
Asked what advice he had given US President Donald Trump on the seemingly endless war in Afghanistan, Imran Khan told the co-hosts of Morning Joe that the conflict would go on for “another 19 years” if the United States doesn’t push for peace.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States remains concerned about India-Pakistan tensions as the nuclear-armed countries’ militaries remain on alert nearly three weeks after their most dangerous confrontation in decades, a senior U.S. administration official said on Wednesday.
The official also indicated that the Trump administration does not think Pakistan has adequately cracked down on the Islamist extremists who claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on Indian security forces that triggered last month’s crisis.
“If there is an additional terrorist attack without Pakistan having made a sustained sincere effort against these groups, it will be extremely problematic for Pakistan and it would cause a re-escalation in tensions,” the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
ISLAMABAD/SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - The United States said on Sunday it was trying to find out if Pakistan used U.S.-built F-16 jets to down an Indian warplane, potentially in violation of U.S. agreements, as the stand-off between the nuclear-armed Asian neighbors appeared to be easing.
Pakistan and India both carried out aerial bombing missions this week, including a clash on Wednesday that saw an Indian pilot shot down over the disputed region of Kashmir in an incident that alarmed global powers and sparked fears of a war.
A Pakistan military spokesman on Wednesday denied Indian claims that Pakistan used F-16 jets.
Republican Congressman Andy Biggs just put forth House Resolution 73 seeking to remove Pakistan’s designation as a “major non-NATO ally”, which would eliminate its privileged military cooperation with the US that’s already been put under strain over the past year since Trump decided to suspend various sorts of aid to the country and decried it for supposedly not doing enough to fight terrorism. Biggs wants to make any reclassification of Pakistan as a “major non-NATO ally” contingent on the President proving to Congress that the country is fighting the so-called “Haqqani Network” that’s bedeviled the US for years, suggesting that this initiative might have something to do with once again scapegoating Pakistan for the latest setback to the incipient US-Taliban peace process.
WASHINGTON: The US has suspended USD 1.66 billion in security assistance to Pakistan after President Donald Trump's directive, the Pentagon has said, in what experts believe is a strong signal of American frustration.
The Pentagon's statement came days after President Trump said that Pakistan does not do "a damn thing" for the US, alleging that its government had helped al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden hide near its garrison city of Abbottabad.
WNU Editor: The Afghan Taliban safe havens are protected in Pakistan, and the Taliban continue to receive weapons from Pakistan. No one is saying it publicly, but from my vantage point Pakistan is clearly pushing for regime change in Afghanistan. This U.S. cut-off of aid was long overdue.
Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks at a joint press conference with Secretary of Defense James Mattis at the Pentagon on Aug. 28, 2018. (Lisa Ferdinando/DoD)
ATHENS, Greece — Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford departed the U.S. on Sunday for a week-long trip focused on shoring up Afghanistan’s new strategy by pressing key neighbors Pakistan and India to do more to help stabilize the country.
Dunford will first visit Pakistan, alongside Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to meet with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. U.S. and Pakistani tensions have escalated over the last year as the Trump administration withheld millions of dollars in military aid over long-standing frustration with Pakistan that it has not taken a more aggressive stand against Taliban and Haqqani network militants who coordinate attacks on Afghanistan from within Pakistan.
Last week, the U.S. confirmed it would hold up an additional $300 million in aid to Pakistan, which Qureshi told Reuters on Sunday would be brought up at the meeting.
The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!
The remark comes amid news reports that the US has suspended $300 million in military aid to Pakistan as Islamabad was not doing enough to tackle terrorist groups
Washington: The United States continues to press Pakistan to "indiscriminately target" all terrorist groups, including the Haqqani Network, the Pentagon said on Sunday, claiming that recent reports distorted details of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF).
The remark comes amid news reports that the US has suspended $300 million in military aid to Pakistan as Islamabad was not doing enough to tackle terrorist groups.
"Unfortunately, recent reporting has distorted the details of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) by stating several things out of context. The suspension of security assistance to Pakistan was announced in January 2018," Pentagon spokesman Lt Col Kon Faulkner said.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis attends the swearing in ceremony for new Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., July 30, 2018. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military said it has made a final decision to cancel $300 million in aid to Pakistan that had been suspended over Islamabad’s perceived failure to take decisive action against militants, in a new blow to deteriorating ties.
The so-called Coalition Support Funds were part of a broader suspension in aid to Pakistan announced by President Donald Trump at the start of the year, when he accused Pakistan of rewarding past assistance with “nothing but lies & deceit.”
The Trump administration says Islamabad is granting safe haven to insurgents who are waging a 17-year-old war in neighboring Afghanistan, a charge Pakistan denies.
But U.S. officials had held out the possibility that Pakistan could win back that support if it changed its behavior.
WNU Editor: Pakistan is not going to change its relationship with these militant groups .... even with this cut-off of U.S. aid. A different strategy will need to be formulated and used by the U.S..
ISLAMABAD/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s administration has quietly started cutting scores of Pakistani officers from coveted training and educational programs that have been a hallmark of bilateral military relations for more than a decade, U.S. officials say.
The move, which has not been previously reported, is one of the first known impacts from Trump’s decision this year to suspend U.S. security assistance to Pakistan to compel it to crack down on Islamic militants.
The Pentagon and the Pakistani military did not comment directly on the decision or the internal deliberations, but officials from both countries privately criticized the move.
U.S. officials, speaking to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said they were worried the decision could undermine a key trust-building measure. Pakistani officials warned it could push their military to further look to China or Russia for leadership training.
WNU editor: The Pentagon is upset that this decision could undermine a key trust-building measure with the Pakistan military. I have no idea on why the Pentagon is saying this .... because after all of these years and the expenditure of billions of dollars to assist the Pakistan military and its intelligence services, Pakistan still provides a safe haven for Taliban leaders and their forces, while imprisoning people like Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi who assisted the U.S. in capturing and killing Osama Bin Laden. In my book this country is not an ally.
The US has decided to seek "the right Taliban leadership" without waiting for Pakistan to play its role in persuading the rebels to join peace talks with the Afghan government. Anwar Iqbal reports from Washington.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed a new strategy for Taliban negotiations at a congressional hearing earlier this week, where he also claimed that US officials and diplomats were "being treated badly" in Pakistan.
"The effort (is) to apply all elements of the United States' government pressure, so that the Taliban will come to the negotiating table," he told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "Now we need to find the right leadership inside the Taliban to participate in those discussions."
WNU Editor: The U.S. has been working with Pakistan for almost 17 years on trying to bring peace to Afghanistan. I say that after 17 years of war .... it is time to look for another strategy.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An American diplomat, who was initially barred from leaving the country after being involved in a fatal traffic accident, has left Pakistan, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said on Monday.
“We can confirm that the American diplomat who was involved in a tragic car accident on April 7 in Islamabad has departed Pakistan,” the spokesperson said in an email to Reuters.
Pakistani authorities initially barred the diplomat, who was not named, from leaving the country.
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani authorities have barred a U.S. diplomat involved in a fatal traffic accident from leaving the country, forcing an American military aircraft flown in for his departure to leave without him, local media reported on Saturday.
The move came a day after Pakistan said it would restrict the movements of all American diplomats in the country in response to Washington’s similar restrictions on Pakistani embassy diplomats.
A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Islamabad declined to comment on the media reports, and a U.S. State Department spokesperson in Washington would neither confirm nor deny them.
“For the privacy and security of those involved, we cannot disclose the diplomat’s current location,” the State Department spokesperson said.
WNU Editor: These type of incidents are always difficult to resolve .... and usually no one is satisfied. In this case the U.S. is not lifting Col Joseph Emanuel Hall diplomatic immunity .... therefore the options that Pakistan now have are limited. My prediction .... this U.S. diplomat will be permitted to leave the country in the coming days.
More News On Pakistan Barring A U.S. Diplomat From Leaving The Country
Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa in a meeting with U.S. Commander General Joseph L Votel has reiterated support to an Afghan-led peace process and reconciliation process but insisted that the blame game should be ended. In a meeting with Commander United States Central Command (US CENTCOM), General Joseph L Votel, at the General Headquarters on Monday, the COAS said that Islamabad has played a vital role for peace in region, reports the Daily Times.
The Trump administration has given Pakistan a new “hit list” of nearly a dozen top militants to detain, to show its willingness to fight terrorism, but the U.S. won’t share intelligence that would help lead to their capture, and has snubbed Pakistani requests to meet CIA chief Mike Pompeo in Washington, a senior Pakistani official tells The Cipher Brief.
“The feeling is there is nothing we can do to make a difference,” the senior Pakistani official said. “They are scapegoating Pakistan for their failure to bring peace in Afghanistan despite more than a decade of conflict.”
Pakistan will seek “pending payments” amounting to billions of dollars from the Unites States as the two countries struggle to build trust, diplomatic sources said.
Senior officials at the foreign ministry told The Nation that Pakistan would ask the US to at least release the payments that were long overdue.
“We are calculating the amount. It is in billions of dollars. They have suspended the aid but they cannot suspend the pending payments . That’s our right,” told an official.
"The relevant departments are working on the details of the pending payments . The request will be sent to the US once we have calculated the total amount,” he added.
Last month, the United States said it was suspending security assistance to Pakistan targeting the Coalition Support Fund.
Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa in a meeting with U.S. Commander General Joseph L Votel has reiterated support to an Afghan-led peace process and reconciliation process but insisted that the blame game should be ended. In a meeting with Commander United States Central Command (US CENTCOM), General Joseph L Votel, at the General Headquarters on Monday, the COAS said that Islamabad has played a vital role for peace in region, reports the Daily Times.
In a conversation with Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, the Pakistani military claimed CENTCOM commander General Joseph Votel said the idea that the Taliban uses Pakistan as a safe haven is “undermining … Pakistan’s contributions in war against terrorism” in Washington. Pakistan’s characterization of the conversation would seemingly pit General Votel directly against the Trump administration, which has decided to take a hard line against Pakistan for its ongoing support of jihadists in Afghanistan.
CENTCOM declined to comment to FDD’s Long War Journal on Pakistan’s view of Votel’s conversation but said it remains “in continuous communication with the Pakistan military.”
Pakistan's defence minister Khurram Dastgir Khan has announced that he has suspended intelligence sharing with the US - the latest twist in the US-Pakistan row. But how much does it matter?
Relations between Washington and Islamabad have been in the spotlight since US President Donald Trump's New Year's Day tweet, where he accused Pakistan of "lies and deceit".
Since then, Washington announced it would halt all security assistance to Pakistan, and Pakistani politicians have been quick to express dismay - with the foreign minister saying that the two aren't allies anymore, and the army chief saying he feels "betrayed".
But behind the rhetoric, both sides are actually responding more cautiously than you might expect.
WNU Editor: The U.S. and Pakistan intelligence relationship has always been complicated .... The C.I.A.’s Maddening Relationship with Pakistan (Nicholas Schmidle, The New Yorker). But after 16 years with no progress in stopping the safe havens for the Taliban and other militant groups in Pakistan .... the cycle has to be broken. And while I do not know if President Trump's cutting of aid to Pakistan .... and Pakistan suspending the sharing of intelligence with the U.S. .... will in the end make a difference. I do know that there is now a dose of honesty in this relationship, and what both sides do from now on will have real consequences. Regular readers of this blog know that I have never trusted the Pakistanis .... that they have been a playing a double game for years. And as I have mentioned more than once in this blog .... as long as Pakistan keeps heroes like Dr. Shakil Afridi in jail .... The Pakistani Doctor Who Helped The CIA To Find Osama Bin Laden Is Still Languishing In A Pakistani Jail (November 16, 2017) .... they cannot be trusted.
‘I’m not concerned,’ the defense secretary tells reporters after the White House announced an intention to suspend military aid to Islamabad.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis played down the prospect that Pakistan might close NATO’s supply routes into Afghanistan after the Trump administration said it would suspend military aid to Islamabad.
Alliance forces rely on Pakistani roads to haul supplies to landlocked Afghanistan. Pakistan closed them once before, after a 2011 U.S. airstrike killed two dozen of its soldiers.
“No, I’m not concerned,” Mattis told reporters on Friday at the Pentagon when asked about the prospect of Pakistan shutting down what the military calls Ground Lines of Communication, or GLOCs.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is examining ways to mitigate any Pakistani retaliation as it piles pressure on Islamabad to crack down on militants, a senior U.S. official said on Friday, cautioning that U.S. action could extend beyond a new freeze in aid.
Pakistan is a crucial gateway for U.S. military supplies destined for U.S. and other troops fighting a 16-year-old war in neighboring, landlocked Afghanistan.
So far, the Pentagon says Pakistan has not given any indication that it would close its airspace or roads to military supplies and U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis played down concerns on Friday.
But Washington has only just begun to work through its new plan to suspend up to roughly $2 billion in U.S. security assistance, announced on Thursday. It came days after U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that Pakistan had rewarded past U.S. aid with “nothing but lies & deceit.”
WNU Editor: If Pakistan does stop the transfer the supplies destined for Afghanistan, the consequences on the U.S.-Afghan war will be severe. It will cripple U.S. military operations, end military support for the Afghan government and its military, and embolden the Taliban and the Islamic State. But the consequences on Pakistan will also be severe. It will mean more suspension of aid from the U.S., the potential of being a designated a terror state (with nuclear weapons), sanctions, a strict U.S.-visa process that will impact hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis, and a more deeper U.S. - Indian alliance which will not all all serve the long term strategic interests of Pakistan. Pakistan's Prime Minister has called these U.S. cuts insignificant .... Pakistan PM calls US aid 'insignificant' as Trump threatens to cut it off (The Guardian) .... but I say that this is not insignificant. My prediction .... Pakistan will put pressure on these extremist groups to tone down their military operations in Afghanistan, and they will .... at least for the short term do so in the hope that this all blows away before the spring when the Taliban begins their military operations. But I sense a determination from the White House that they really do want Pakistan to end these safe havens, and toning them down will not be enough.
ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan has responded harshly to a U.S. decision to suspend at least $900 million in security assistance, saying Washington's "arbitrary deadlines, unilateral pronouncements, and shifting goalposts are counterproductive" to addressing the threat of terrorism.
The statement from Pakistan's Foreign Office on January 5 said the "impact of the U.S. decision on the pursuit of common objectives" was "likely to emerge more clearly in due course of time."
The Foreign Office said Islamabad was "engaged" with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration "on the issue of security cooperation and awaits further details."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday it was suspending an undisclosed amount of security assistance to Pakistan, which two officials said was worth more than $255 million, until Islamabad takes action against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network.
The U.S. State Department announced the decision, saying it reflected the Trump administration’s frustration that Pakistan has not done more against the two groups, which have long used sanctuaries in Pakistan to launch attacks in neighboring Afghanistan that have killed U.S., Afghan and other forces.
The department declined to say exactly how much aid would be suspended, saying the numbers were still being calculated and included funding from both the State and Defense departments.
WNU Editor: There is going to be blow-back to this suspension of aid .... unless the U.S. has already warned Pakistan that this is the first salvo if they decide to escalate .... and I can think of a whole bunch of measures that can be implemented .... restrictions on visas, economic restrictions, etc.. Today it was this .... U.S. Places Pakistan on Watch List for Religious Freedom Violations (Reuters).
More News On The U.S. Officially Suspending Security Aid To Pakistan
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